I am nursing a child who was born without an anus. I am believing God for a miracle, but I feel like God has forgotten His promises and chose to let me suffer. What are your thoughts?
Before we look at scriptures to answer your question (for we want to give you “God’s thoughts,” not “our thoughts”), I want to share a personal experience with you. Our oldest daughter was expecting her 5th child, and everything looked normal on the last ultrasound imaging that she had. When her baby daughter was born, she and her husband (and their doctor) were shocked to see a very “deformed baby” in the doctor’s hands. Her nose and mouth were underdeveloped, and they learned her lungs were so deformed that she was only given 1-2 days to live. After testing, she was diagnosed with a severe chromosome disorder which caused the deformities. She only lived another 24-30 hours. We were all able to cuddle her till she took her last breath. Immediately after she died, her daddy (our son-in-law) committed her spirit to the Lord and thanked Him that she didn’t have to suffer very long. I took her funeral, and we took comfort in the fact that her “spirit was beholding the face of her heavenly Father in heaven” (Matthew 18:10). The verses that follow show that “the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost” and that “it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish” (verses 11 & 14). Though she was “born in sin” (Psalm 51:5), Christ came to “save the lost” and thus all who die before they reach an age of accountability to God are saved and in heaven.
I am sorry for the trial you are going through with your child, and I have just prayed for you to be comforted by the scriptures and that you will believe that God loves you and your child. You say that you “feel like God has forgotten His promises.” What promises are you referring to? I am not aware of any promises that God has given to assure parents that their children will never suffer any physical afflictions at birth. Though my daughter and her husband were shocked by the birth of their deformed daughter, they did not blame God. They knew there was no such promise in the Bible of babies being born with perfectly developed bodies. The fact is, Scripture gives us examples of people being born with some form of affliction or disease. A well-known example is in John 9:1 which says, “Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was BLIND FROM BIRTH.” His disciples then asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man or his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him” (verses 2-3). In this case, God allowed this man to be born blind so He could heal him which would show people His power to work a miracle. His blindness was not caused by anyone’s specific sin (though SIN is the root cause of all disease and death…see Romans 5:12).
Another familiar case is found in 2 Samuel chapters 11 and 12, where we have the story of King David committing adultery with Bathsheba. Because of David’s sin we read that Nathan the prophet said to David, “The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die. However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, THE CHILD ALSO BORN TO YOU SHALL SURELY DIE” (12:13-14). In verse 15 we read, “And the LORD struck the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David, and it became ill.” David then pleaded with God to heal him but “on the seventh day it came to pass that the child was dead” (verses 16-18). Did David become angry with God and charge Him with being unfair? No, for he knew that “his sin had caused God to take his child from him.” We then read that David “went into the house of the LORD and worshiped” (verse 20). When his servants couldn’t understand his actions he said to them, “While the child was alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, ‘Who can tell whether the LORD will be gracious to me, that the child may live?’ But now he is dead; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I SHALL GO TO HIM, but he shall not return to me” (verses 22-23). David accepted the Lord’s will in taking his son home to heaven and knew that he would one day see his son again.
In closing, we must accept God’s will when it comes to the birth of a child. Some do claim that God would never allow a child to be born with birth defects, illnesses, or a disease of any kind. But we read in Exodus 4:11, “The Lord said to him (Moses), ‘Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes him MUTE or DEAF, or seeing or BLIND? Is it not I, the LORD?” (NASB) We MUST accept God’s perfect will in these matters and if we are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we can cling to His promise to us in Romans 8:28: “For we know that ALL THINGS WORK TOGETHER FOR GOOD to those who love God, to those who are the called according to HIS PURPOSE.” We must believe that God “feels our pain and cares for us” (see 1 Peter 5:4-5) and that He has a PURPOSE in every trial He allows us to pass through (see 1 Corinthians 10:13 with 1 Peter 1:6-7). (DO) (618.3)